Several green records of an oversized black box

Authors: Barbara Benish (CZ/USA), Zdena Kolečková (CZ), Silvia Krupinská (SK/UK), Elena Martí Manzanares (ES), Agáta Marzecová (SK/EE), Lucie Mičíková (CZ), Kristyna a Marek Milde (CZ/USA), Dagmar Šubrtová (CZ), Magda Tothova (SK/DE), Edita Vološčuková (SK), Monika Germuška Vrancová (SK)

The premier international exhibition project organised by the Gallery of Spiš Artists under the title Several Green Records of an Oversized Black Box is a utopian-dystopian meditation on the future of our planet. The works in various media by the ten female contemporary artists and one artistic duo reflect upon the current state of the environment and visions of possible new worlds. The project is supported by public funds from the Slovak Arts Council.

The title of the exhibition refers to a series of specific ecological art projects and efforts during a period in which the natural environment is suffering mass destruction. In a metaphorical sense, the black box represents our entire planet which mercilessly preserves an indelible record of each of our actions. The black box is a coffin, but it is also a utopian version of Malevich’s Black Square, a cosmological future with a question mark (à la Julius Koller). The black square / box can be either the death or the rebirth of the world and art; it might even (but not necessarily) represent the end point of our insatiable civilization. Many behavioural psychologists believe that the human brain can also act as a black box. The human mind responds to stimuli; if we want to change behaviour, we must change the stimuli, not the mind which simply acts in response to stimuli. This is exactly the role which art can play through its unique ability to transform information into emotion. The individual works by a selection of female artists and an artistic duo are an attempt to seek out a “greener” world. They represent sketches for environmentally focussed ideas, potential starting points, local revitalisations or environmental acts in different media, ranging from paper to objects, videos and installations, using found and recycled materials. And while these efforts might seem minor or insignificant, they have their own significance in the spread of ideas, the starting point of every process of change.

Mgr. art Katarína Balúnová, ArtD., author and project curator